Daily Devotional

Scripture Readings

Paschalion — Movable Calendar

Thursday of the Second Week

Epistle

The Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles [§ 12]. In those days:

4 ²³The apostles, having been set free, came to their own company and reported as much as the chief priests and the elders said to them. ²⁴And after they heard that, with one accord they lifted up their voice to God and said, “Master, Thou art the God Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them, ²⁵“Who by the mouth of Thy servant David said, ‘Why did the nations act arrogantly and the peoples meditate empty things [Ps. 2:1]? ²⁶“‘The kings of the earth stood by, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ [Ps. 2:2].’ ²⁷“For of a truth, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together against Thy holy Servant Jesus, Whom Thou didst anoint, ²⁸“to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel foreordained to be done. ²⁹“And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to Thy slaves to speak Thy word with all boldness, ³⁰“as Thou stretchest forth Thy hand for healing and signs and wonders to be done through the name of Thy holy Servant Jesus.” ³¹And having made entreaty, the place was shaken in which they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and were speaking the word of God with boldness.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 16]. The Lord said to the Jews who had come to Him:

5 ²⁴“Verily, verily, I say to you, that the one who heareth My word and believeth the One Who sent Me hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed over out of death into life. ²⁵“Verily, verily, I say to you, that an hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who hear shall live. ²⁶“For even as the Father hath life in Himself, so He also gave to the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷“and He also gave to Him authority to execute judgment. That He is Son of Man, ²⁸“cease marvelling at this; for an hour is coming in which all those in the graves shall hear His voice, ²⁹“and shall go forth—they who did good things to a resurrection of life, but they who practised bad things to a resurrection of condemnation. ³⁰“I am not able to do anything of Myself. Even as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the One Who sent Me, the Father.”

Menaion — Fixed Calendar

The commemoration of the holy Apostle Nathanael, and our holy father among the saints, Theodore the Sykeote, Bishop of Anastasioupolis.

Epistle

No reading given.

Gospel

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 43]. The Lord said to His disciples:

11 ²⁷“All things were delivered to Me by My Father. And no one doth fully know the Son, except the Father; nor doth anyone fully know the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son is willing to reveal Him. ²⁸“Come to Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹“Take up My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls. ³⁰“For My yoke is good and My burden is light.”

Lives of the Saints (Prologue)

May 5th – Civil Calendar
April 22nd – Church Calendar

1. Our Holy Father Theodore the Sykeote.

His birthplace was the village of Sykeon in Galatia, because of which he was named ‘the Sykeote’. While still a ten-year-old boy, Theodore gave himself to strict fasting and all-night vigils under the eye of an elder, Stephen, who lived in his house. His mother, Maria, was a rich widow and intended her son to devote himself to a soldier’s calling. But St. George appeared to her in her sleep and told her that Theodore was destined for the service, not of an earthly king, but of the King of heaven. St. George also appeared to Theodore many times, either to instruct him or to save him from some danger in which the evil demons had placed him. He also had several visions of the most holy Mother of God. Theodore’s asceticism exceeded in its severity the asceticism of all the other ascetics of his time. He tormented his body in hunger and thirst and iron girdles and standing all night in prayer. All this—only to link his soul in love to God and to achieve total mastery over his body. The merciful Lord’s love responded to Theodore’s love. He gave him great power over evil spirits and over all the ills and pains of men. He became known on all sides as a miraculous healer. For his great purity and devotion, he was chosen against his wishes as Bishop of Anastasioupolis. He spent eleven years in episcopal service, and then begged God to release him from this service in order to devote himself again to his beloved asceticism. After that, he returned to his monastery, where, in old age, he gave his soul to the Lord for Whose sake he had undergone so much voluntary suffering. He died at the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Herakleios, in about 613.

2. The Holy Martyr Leonidas.

The father of Origen, he suffered for Christ in Alexandria in 202. First, by imperial decree, all his goods were confiscated and then he was condemned to death. Origen wrote to his father in prison: ‘Father, do not worry about us, and do not flee from martyrdom on our account.’

3. Our Holy Father, the Monk Vitalis.

In the time of Patriarch John the Merciful, a young monk appeared, who, as soon as he arrived, compiled a list of all the prostitutes in Alexandria. His way of asceticism was exceptional and singular. During the day he hired himself out for the heaviest work, and at night he went into the brothels, gave the money he had earned to some prostitute and shut himself in her room with her for the whole night. As soon as he had shut the door, Vitalis begged the woman to lie down and sleep, while he spent the entire night in a corner of the room in prayer to God for that sinner. So he kept the sinner from sinning even for one night. The second night he would go to another, the third to another, and so on in order until he had gone through them all, then he went back to the one with whom he had started. By his counsel, many of these sinners left their foul calling; some married, others went to a monastery and others began some honest work for payment. All these women were forbidden by Vitalis to say why he came to them. As a result, he became a scandal to the whole of Alexandria. People reviled him in the streets, spat on him and buffeted him. But he bore it all patiently, revealing his good works to the Lord but concealing them from men. When he died, all became known about him. There began to be many miraculous healings over his grave; people came from various places, bringing their sick to it. Spat on by men, he was and is glorified by the all-seeing God.

FOR CONSIDERATION

At the time of the Council of Nicaea, various quarrelsome clerics wrote accusations against one another and gave them to the emperor. The Emperor Constantine took all these accusations, and without opening them, burned them in a brazier and said to the astonished bystanders: ‘If I were, with my own eyes, to see a bishop or priest or monk in some sinful act, I would cover him with my clothing, so that no one should see him in his sin.’ Thus the great Christian emperor put the scandalmongers to shame and shut their mouths. Our Faith forbids us to spy on the sins of others, and calls us to be merciless judges of ourselves. A sick man in a hospital is occupied with his own sickness and has neither the desire nor the time to examine the other sick people and sneer at their illnesses. Are not we all, in this world, like sick men in the hospital? And is it not common sense to occupy ourselves with our own sicknesses and not with another’s? Do not let anyone think that he will be healed of his sickness in this world. This world is the hospital and the place of healing, but in the other world there are no hospitals: there is either a king’s court or a prison.

Daily Scripture Readings taken from The Orthodox New Testament, translated and published by Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado, copyright © 2000, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Daily Prologue Readings taken from The Prologue of Ochrid, by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, translated by Mother Maria, published by Lazarica Press, Birmingham, England, copyright © 1985, all rights reserved. Edited by Dormition Skete.